The changes which have taken place in northern Australia over the past fifteen years in connection with natural resource exploitation and new town development require detailed consideration. The issues include Australia's role in the international economic system; the country's regional development priorities; individual quality-of-life expectations. At present Australia does not appear to be gaining the maximum advantage from its natural resources at national, regional or individual levels. Australia's humid and arid tropics cover about ninety per cent of the landmass and incorporate seven per cent of its population. They have been the arena for exstensive new town development unprecedented in that region's history. This development, primarily associated with the mining industry, has been rapid. Since 1960 at least twenty-five new mining towns and eleven new ports (for the most part company-owned and controlled) have been constructed in remote locations. [Introduction]